


As I fall asleep

by SkippingCitrus



Category: Re-Animator (1985)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:04:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6413770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkippingCitrus/pseuds/SkippingCitrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dragging myself out of writers block by writing fic for a new fandom.</p>
<p>Dan’s sad, Herbert’s creepy, what else is new?</p>
            </blockquote>





	As I fall asleep

Dan hadn’t slept properly since Meg’s death. He almost felt like it shouldn’t matter, they’d never spent a night together while she was alive. But every night he lay in the dark with a promised future stuck in his thoughts, painful in its sudden impossibility.

The house was almost silent, the distant rumble of the boiler the only audible sound until a sharp creak indicated the opening of the basement door. Soft footsteps paced down the hall before the quiet click of Herbert’s bedroom door silenced them.

He hadn’t been sleeping either, probably hadn’t slept since he’d arrived at the house. He seemed determined to live off reagent and coffee until it killed him, and Dan wasn’t particularly inclined to stop him.

His exhausted mind was beginning to blur out into sleep when the door clicked again. He waited for the sound of the basement door, confirmation West was back to working on the few parts he’d managed to steal from the morgue.

Instead the footsteps came closer and his own door opened, the weak light from the hallway spilling into his room. Dan remained still, eyes barely open in the hope his partner would assume he was sleeping and leave him alone until morning.

They both remained still, watching each other until Herbert stepped into the room, footsteps almost silent as he moved closer.

Dan willed his body to remain slack, keeping his breathing soft and slow even as the scientist stood above him, gazing down as though he were just another corpse in the lab waiting to be cut apart 

He didn’t flinch as Herbert reached towards him, not even as cold fingertips brushed over his face. They lightly stroked his cheek before moving lower and wrapping around his throat.

A sharp spike of panic ran though him. The grip wasn’t tight, not quite enough to restrict blood or breathing yet, but still a promise of the possibility. Herbert’s pulse beat against his own, a slow pace compared to his own rapid heartbeat.

He waited for Herbert to say something, some comment about his failed pretence at sleep, an order for him to get up and assist, anything. Maybe for the hand to constrict, for Herbert to have finally decided he’d be of more use as a corpse than as an assistant.

Eyes wide he stared up at the other man. West wasn’t even looking at his face, gaze fixated on his own hand against Dan’s throat. He murmured something too soft for Dan to catch before releasing him. He left the room in silence, door clicking shut behind him and plunging the room back into darkness.

Dan spent the rest of the night staring into the shadows, sleep eventually pulling him into a series of strange dreams that faded as soon as he woke, leaving him with nothing but faint memories of blood and icy hands.


End file.
